Welcome to The Hub Nanaimo, your weekly insider guide to the best of community arts and culture. Did a friend forward this email to you? Subscribe to this newsletter.

This weekend is Nanaimo’s annual Maple Sugar Festival, which features a great lineup of local and international francophone artists, includes Quebec artist Mélisande Électrotrad’s electronic music and Guinea artist Alpha Yaya Diallo’s guitar, percussion and balafon. 

The festival also has a raft of free workshops in visual arts, dance, writing, music, Quebec traditional music and even magic tricks. 

There will be a market full of handmade crafts from local artisans. And it wouldn’t be a francophone festival in Canada without food such as poutine and maple-toffy-on-snow. 

If live theatre is more your jam, there are two new plays opening this week with Men On Boats debuting at the Bailey Studio tonight and Clown Fish at the OV Arts Centre on Friday. 

Profites-en bien! 

Mick Sweetman

🖊️ What you said ⌨️

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“Providing information I would otherwise not have known. Saving my time searching for events.”

— From our newsletter survey

🔎 Watch for 🔍

Feb. 20 to Feb. 22: The Maple Sugar Festival celebrates francophone culture in Nanaimo at Beban Park Social Centre. Tickets cost $15 for a weekend pass or $10 for a day pass. Admission for children under 12 is free. 

Got the inside scoop of an event you think should be shared? 

Let us know by sending Mick an email.

🎵 Listen 🎤

Thursday, Feb. 19,  9 p.m.: The Chris Corsano and John Brennan duo will play a record release show with Let The Monkeys Dance at The Vault Cafe’s Fake Jass. Tickets cost $25. 

Friday, Feb. 20, 7 p.m.: End of Thread, Ironhead and Junk play an all-ages alternative, punk and metal at The Globe Live Studio. Tickets cost $15

Friday, Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m.: Superbloom Comedy features Vancouver Island comedians in the cozy Attic at Black Rabbit Kitchen. Tickets cost $15. 

Friday, Feb. 20, 9 p.m.: Victoria’s EVIL!, Crater Snakes and Top Ropes will play heavy stoner punk rock at The Vault Cafe. Tickets cost $15. 

Saturday, Feb. 21, 4:30 p.m.: The Corps, Danger Box, Awkward A/C, JSM and Gorilla Flip will play an all-ages punk show at The Globe Live Studio. Tickets cost $20. 

Saturday, Feb. 21, 6 p.m.: Folk singer-songwriters Steve Mitchell, Tina Jones and Moritz Beh will hold Songwriters In A Row at The Vault Cafe. Tickets cost $15. 

Saturday, Feb. 21, 9 p.m.: Benefit for Cilaire Elementary's graduating class of 2026 with CoverGirls and J. Cool and The Glad Trains playing classic rock covers at The Vault Cafe. Tickets cost $15-$20. 

Saturday, Feb. 21, 9 p.m.: Coal Dust Gang, Shadow Basket and Sunshower will play at The Terminal Bar. Tickets cost $10. 

Sunday, Feb. 22, 3 p.m.: Eugene Smith will headline the Sunday Blues Jam hosted by the Nanaimo Blues Society at The Queen’s. Tickets cost $10.

🎭 View 🖼️

Thursday, Feb. 19, 7:30 p.m.: Men On Boats, the “true(ish) history of an 1869 expedition, when a one-armed captain and a crew of insane-yet-loyal volunteers set out to chart the course of the Colorado River,” will open at The Bailey Studio and run until March 8. Tickets cost $28. 

Friday, Feb. 20, noon: Take a lunchtime tour of Bleached by the Sun: Perspectives on Chinatown at the Nanaimo Art Gallery. Tickets cost $5.

Friday, Feb. 20, 6 p.m.: An opening reception for an exhibition of Joy Olsen’s early and previously unexhibited works will take place at the Nanaimo Ceramic Arts Studio.

Friday, Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m.: Clown Fish, “Paul Tedeschini’s story of loss, the power of choice and a healing journey that continues to this day,” opens at the OV Arts Centre. The play will run until March 1. Tickets cost $28 for adults, $24 for seniors and $15 for youth under 30. 

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m.: UPU: A Journey through the Heartbeat of Pacific Poetry will bring New Zealand poetry and theatre to Nanaimo at The Port Theatre. Tickets cost $50 or $25 for students. 

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 6 p.m.: The VIU Muslim Women’s Club will screen The Encampments, a film about Palestine solidarity protests on U.S. campuses. Admission is free.

⛹️ Meet 🎲

Thursday, Feb. 19, Noon: The Black History Book Club will meet in the Malaspina Theatre Lobby to discuss Desmond Cole’s The Skin We’re In.

Friday, Feb. 20, 6 p.m.: The VIU Mariners basketball teams will play the Douglas College Royals at the VIU Gym. Women' s game at 6 p.m. and men’s game at 8 p.m. Admission is free for VIU students.  

Friday, Feb. 20, 7 p.m.: The Nanaimo Clippers hockey team will play the Chilliwack Chiefs at Frank Crane Arena. Tickets cost $22.

Saturday, Feb. 21, 1 p.m.: The VIU Mariners basketball teams will play the Douglas College Royals at the VIU Gym. Women' s game at 1 p.m. and men’s game at 3 p.m. Admission is free for VIU students.  

Saturday, Feb. 21, 2:30 p.m.: Youth ages 12-18 are welcome to join the Teen Advisory Group at the Nanaimo North Library. Teens meet monthly to help plan library programs and services for teens in our branch in an inclusive, supportive environment. Register here.

Saturday, Feb. 21, 3:30 p.m.: The Shelf Care Teen Book Club will meet in the Nanaimo North Library. 

Saturday, Feb. 21, 4 p.m.: Celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Nanaimo Area Cycling Coalition at White Sails Brewing. 

Saturday, Feb. 21, 7 p.m. The Nanaimo West Coast Swing Collective will hold a West Coast Swing Social at Wellington Hall. Tickets cost $15. 

Sunday, Feb. 22, 1 p.m.: Queer Crafternoon is a “free drop-in art space for queer, trans, and two-spirit folks of all ages along with their friends and family to craft, create and connect” at the Nanaimo Harbourfront Library.

Sunday, Feb. 22, 1:16 p.m.: Build a series of paper craft doors leading to imaginary scenes at Art Lab Sunday in the Nanaimo Art Gallery. Tickets cost $5.

Monday, Feb. 23, 2 p.m.: A new afternoon edition of the Reader’s Choice book club will meet at the Nanaimo Harbourfront Library. 

Monday, Feb. 23, 2:30 p.m.: Come read anything by a Black author at Speaking Black Voices: A Black History Month Open Mic in the Malaspina Theatre Lobby.

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 6:30 p.m.: Practicing artists across the visual and performing arts are invited to come together in a dynamic meeting space at the Nanaimo Art Gallery’s Creative Minds: Artist Meet-Up.

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 5 p.m.: Magnolia Pauker and Sara Kishawi will discuss “How do we practice solidarity in times of oppression, violence, and genocide?” during the Philosophy Cafe at the Harbourfront Library. 

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